Optimized Transportation of the Open-pit Coal Mine

Abstract

With the increase in the production scale of open-pit coal mines, the safety management, economic benefits, and sustainable development of open-pit coal mines are constantly being challenged. A new optimization method for the internal circulation transportation was proposed to improve the transportation benefit of the open-pit coal mine and reveal its temporal and spatial evolution laws in such a mine. The applicable conditions of the proposed transportation were described. The applicable conditions of the two internal circulation transportations, single and double bridges, were also compared and analyzed. The adaptability, key parameters, and space-time benefits of the introduced method were verified through the Hongshaquan opencast coal mine. Results show that the saving cost of internal circulation transportations increases as the working line length L rises. Critical internal circulation length L1 and critical doublebridge length L2 are also observed. The proposed transportation can be constructed when L is larger than L1, and the transportation scheme with double bridges can be profitable when L is larger than L2. The Hongshaquan opencast coal mine has the following conditions for building internal circulation transportation: the critical internal transportation length L1 = 430.8 m and the critical double-bridge length L1 = 515 m. This study can provide a reference for the open-pit coal mine transportation system and improve the benefits of the transportation system.